This press release from PETA arrived in my inbox a few days ago (7/12/06). I have the cited documentation on file. While said documentation is not online, you can obtain it via the contact info cited below.
Nashville, Tenn. — PETA has fired off a letter to Vanderbilt University Chancellor Gordon Gee asking him to scrap plans to expand the university’s already massive animal laboratories by an alarming 75 percent. The proposed 55,000-square-foot addition would allow Vanderbilt to increase its current population of 85,000 animals by tens of thousands.
Documents obtained from the National Institutes of Health reveal an incident in which a Vanderbilt senior primate researcher threatened a technician for reporting animal care problems and another in which a monkey underwent too many surgeries and suffered a fatal brain hemorrhage. The documents also reveal the use of filthy primate-restraint chairs, repeated failures to provide post-operative painkillers, unauthorized surgeries, and an operation on an unanesthetized animal; additionally, multiple staff members were found to be incapable of properly administering or monitoring anesthetics.
PETA also points out that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently found Vanderbilt to be in violation of 13 different regulations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. The USDA found that Vanderbilt failed to provide appropriate housing, food, water, and enrichment to the university’s primates, including one—a squirrel monkey named Lil Wayne—who died from dehydration and did not receive proper veterinary care. The USDA also found that Vanderbilt had deviated from approved experiment protocols, used expired drugs, and performed nonsterile surgeries.
“It is troubling that Vanderbilt is planning to expand its laboratories when it has shown that it can’t take proper care of the animals it already has,” says PETA researcher Matthew Mongiello, who is a Vanderbilt alumnus. “Pumping even more money into cruel and archaic animal experiments threatens Vanderbilt’s reputation as a top institution of higher education.”
PETA’s letter to Chancellor Gee and documentation of Vanderbilt’s violations and expansion plans are available upon request. Contact: MatthewM@peta.org
For more information, please visit: StopAnimalTests.com.
PETA News Politics Animal Research Vanderbilt Nashville Tennessee
